Marine Corps to Open Infantry Officer Course to Women

[txradioguy]

WASHINGTON -- The Marine Corps will soon allow women to attend its school for infantry officers, as part of a larger effort to determine how to expand the role of women in the Corps.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, told the Marine Corps Times on Wednesday that the service is in the process of soliciting volunteers to attend the Infantry Officer Course in Quantico, Va.

All Marine infantry officers attend the 10-week course after completing The Basic School. Dunford and other Marine officials have not said what the next steps will be for women who volunteer to attend the school.

The Marine Corps is expected to release a service-wide message soon about expanding career and training opportunities for women. The message will include information about women attending IOC.

The Corps earlier this year requested that Congress approve an exception to policy that would allow female company-grade officers and female staff noncommissioned officers who already hold certain military occupational specialties, such as communications, to be assigned to about 400 corresponding jobs with ground combat element units at the battalion level. The units include artillery, tanks, amphibious assault, low-altitude air defense, combat assault and combat engineers, but not infantry units.

Women will be considered for those positions starting in May.

Dunford also said there is a plan to evaluate male and female Marines against new physical fitness standards that are being developed. The information from all the new initiatives will be incorporated into a report later this year from the Corps to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

http://www.military.com/news/article/marine-corps-to-open-officer-infantry-school-to-women.html?comp=1198882887570&rank=1

[ExGeeEye]

Sic Transit Gloria USMC.

[JohnnyReb]

I guess the liberals and feminazis are all giddy over this?.

I can hear them now, "We've done something no one else has ever done, we've defeated the Marines."

[Kyle Ricky]

They can train to be infantry all they want, they still won't be involved in combat.

[docstew]

This could actually work out to a win-win for the Marines. They absolutely must leave the standards where they are currently. The only concession should be for hygeine issues. If some women pass (as there will undoubtedly be a few who will), the Marines have a brand new infantry officer. When most of them fail, they'll have proof positive that there are legit reasons for restricting it, and they have nothing to do with hygeine or health issues, but with the physicality needed to perform that job.

[Eupher]

Let's see how this shapes up when the casualty rate for female infantry officers is double or triple that of male infantry officers.

Granted, females are currently killed in combat, so most Americans accept the idea that women in the military are going to die.

Maybe it's the how they die that'll be an issue. The idea that some Taliban insurgent sticks a knife in the eye of a female Marine lieutenant as the platoon she's leading is ambushed just might not sit well.

[CG6468]

This could actually work out to a win-win for the Marines. They absolutely must leave the standards where they are currently. The only concession should be for hygeine issues. If some women pass (as there will undoubtedly be a few who will), the Marines have a brand new infantry officer. When most of them fail, they'll have proof positive that there are legit reasons for restricting it, and they have nothing to do with hygeine or health issues, but with the physicality needed to perform that job.

It'll be interesting to see if the "standards" are modified - lower.

[whiffleball]

I'm a female Army veteran.  When I was in I knew of no women who could challenge/match men physically - none.  Many of us were very good shots, some proved to be good tacticians, but we couldn't keep up in the field.  Training maneuvers slowed because we did not have the stamina to maintain a march with full ruck. 

Time and again I witnessed female troops asking for and expecting help from their male counterparts.  Not many males refused and a few even offered help when it clearly was not needed.  I'm not saying every female troop was weak and ineffective, but there was a social dynamic that could not be denied.

If the Marines plan to use all female combat units in the future it might, maybe, work.  I can't see coed front line combat being successful any time soon. 

[Wineslob]

Lets hope thay don't break any fingernails.... 

[JohnnyReb]

I'm a female Army veteran.  When I was in I knew of no women who could challenge/match men physically - none.  Many of us were very good shots, some proved to be good tacticians, but we couldn't keep up in the field.  Training maneuvers slowed because we did not have the stamina to maintain a march with full ruck. 

I had a female cousin that could have held her own against all but the most elite Marine. She was not a small girl and had a mean streak to match the most gung-ho Marine. She once threw the bouncer of a redneck juke-joint out on his butt and dared him to come back in the place. He quit the job on the spot. But then she was probably one in 10,000,000.

[EagleKeeper]

I don't think I would have a problem with this...I only ask a few things.

1. They know how to drive their unit around on the battlefield, these are officers after all.
2. They put lead down range, even if things hit the fan.
3. They can pack my busted up rearend and crew a SAW a the same time.

[miskie]

I'm a female Army veteran.  When I was in I knew of no women who could challenge/match men physically - none.  Many of us were very good shots, some proved to be good tacticians, but we couldn't keep up in the field.  Training maneuvers slowed because we did not have the stamina to maintain a march with full ruck.  
<snip>

Well, there is a very real biological basis for women falling behind their male counterparts when it comes to physically stressful activities. The short of it is if one compares a man & a woman of the same age, height, and weight - one will soon discover that the man's heart is larger and his lung capacity greater.

It's not sexist, it's biology.  Humans evolved into distinct hunter/gatherer roles many generations ago, and that evolutionary division still exists today. I would imagine that it will level out many generations into the future, but not now.

[obumazombie]

The Physical Fitness Test already has lower standards for females than their male counterparts.
To this day I don't see the wisdom of that. A casualty won't weigh less for a woman, a march or run in combat  won't be shorter for a woman.
If any woman can meet the same exact standards as a man in the military, physically or otherwise, I would be proud to serve with them.
There are a few, but not many. Otherwise it's just a failed liberal social experiment.

[rich_t]

The Physical Fitness Test already has lower standards for females than their male counterparts.
To this day I don't see the wisdom of that. A casualty won't weigh less for a woman, a march or run in combat  won't be shorter for a woman.
If any woman can meet the same exact standards as a man in the military, physically or otherwise, I would be proud to serve with them.
There are a few, but not many. Otherwise it's just a failed liberal social experiment.

Exactly.  Even in combat support roles like the signal corp it has consequences.  I had women on more than one team that simply weren't up to the physical rigors of the job.  Hell, I had a few that couldn't even carry a single bag of cammo netting, not to mention not being able to swing an 8 pound sledge hammer in order to drive a 3 foot "elephant stake" into the ground for guide wires.

[NHSparky]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgPQNXGFH_A[/youtube]

Yeah, this is gonna work out well.

[obumazombie]

^"Standard" eight.
Voice of authority
"Only make her do 5"

[miskie]

Exactly.  Even in combat support roles like the signal corp it has consequences.  I had women on more than one team that simply weren't up to the physical rigors of the job.  Hell, I had a few that couldn't even carry a single bag of cammo netting, not to mention not being able to swing an 8 pound sledge hammer in order to drive a 3 foot "elephant stake" into the ground for guide wires.

Again - Men have larger hearts & lungs, and also can convert food to energy at a much faster rate than the ladies. Men are engineered for physical abuse. Evolution.

The flip side is we burn out faster, which means we will achieve room temperature sooner than our female counterparts (most of the time).

[rich_t]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgPQNXGFH_A[/youtube]

Yeah, this is gonna work out well.

Hell, it looks like she could barely hold the weight of it.

[rich_t]

Again - Men have larger hearts & lungs, and also can convert food to energy at a much faster rate than the ladies. Men are engineered for physical abuse. Evolution.

The flip side is we burn out faster, which means we will achieve room temperature sooner than our female counterparts (most of the time).

I don't view that as a bad thing.  I'd rather not live long enough to require someone to wipe my butt anyway.

[thundley4]

I don't think I would have a problem with this...I only ask a few things.

1. They know how to drive their unit around on the battlefield, these are officers after all.
2. They put lead down range, even if things hit the fan.
3. They can pack my busted up rearend and crew a SAW a the same time.

4. They make me a sammich. 

[thundley4]

Again - Men have larger hearts & lungs, and also can convert food to energy at a much faster rate than the ladies. Men are engineered for physical abuse. Evolution.

The flip side is we burn out faster, which means we will achieve room temperature sooner than our female counterparts (most of the time).

Funny how the left pushes us to believe in evolution, yet they are the ones that deny the differences caused by it.

[obumazombie]

Funny how the left pushes us to believe in evolution, yet they are the ones that deny the differences caused by it.

Being a lib is being able to have your cake and eat it.

[Eupher]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgPQNXGFH_A[/youtube]

Yeah, this is gonna work out well.

Cusses like a sailor to make up for her lame-ass performance. 

[T-Monay820]

Hell, it looks like she could barely hold the weight of it.

I heard that was part of the reasoning behind the M-16, rather than another 7.62 weapon like the old M14. I read about when they first introduced women to the USMA and they would have inspections with their M14 and couldn't hold the weapon during inspection arms and they had to introduce a female "version" of the procedures which included placing the weapon on their knee to open the chamber.

[T-Monay820]

Cusses like a sailor to make up for her lame-ass performance. 

If you can't look the part, at least sound like you know what you're doing.